Jail for ramraiders who hit Stamford supermarket

Stephen Briggs

Two men who caused £3,300 of damage to a Stamford supermarket in a failed ram raid have been jailed.

Lance Taiani, (29), of Station Road, Keynsham, Bristol and Paul O’Shea, (32), of St David’s Crescent, Bristol carried out the raid on Morrison’s in Stamford as part of a spree of attacks in nine counties across England.

They got away empty handed, but caused £3,365 in the process.

Taiani was jailed for three years four months at Maidstone Crown Court and his co-accused was given a four year sentence at a hearing last week.

The court was told that over an eight month period in 2013 the pair, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal, carried out 14 raids on cash machines throughout the country.

In a rampage which ranged through nine counties – Hampshire, Kent, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Surrey, Herefordshire and Northamptonshire – O’Shea and Taiani left a trail of destruction as they attacked cash machines.

But it was their techniques that helped lead to their downfall. Taini was linked to the raids after a DNA profile was taken from a tub which had contained water thrown into one machine in a bid to disable it. This, coupled with evidence from satnavs taken from vehicles they had used and automatic number plate recognition resulted in them being arrested the court heard.

The raids by the pair began in Kent’s county town of Maidstone in April 2013. Other raids were later carried out in the county at Ashford.

In other counties targets were in Horndean and Yateley in Hampshire, Stamford in Lincolnshire, Corby and Northampton in Northamptonshire, Leatherhead in Surrey, Stratford and Warwick in Warwickshire, Leominster in Herefordshire, Hinkley in Leicestershire and Telford in Shropshire.

The pair’s biggest haul was in Ashford where they got away with £32,000 on one raid. But they picked up other hauls over £20,000 - £26,930 in Corby and £27,820 in Telford.

As he sentenced the pair Judge Philip Statman told them : “There were rich pickings available for both of you. This was professional criminality.”

However, he questioned their expertise telling them : “Neither of you were at the top of the chain. If that had been the case there would have been a far greater level of sophistication.”